11/3/09 Today you should go through the powerpoint from the director of the event. The powerpoint gives a lot of information about the material that will be tested. If Alex has something else for you to do, do whatever he says : )
Aaron's Addition:
Solar system Notes
Venus High point: Maxwell Montes (The Test was wrong!!!!)
Saturn’s Rings: Saturn's rings are a Keplerian disk, meaning that they differentially rotate around Saturn with a period equal to the period of rotation of a satellite in a circular orbit.
The D Ring is the innermost ring, and is very faint.
The C Ring is a wide but faint ring located inward of the B Ring. It was discovered in 1850 by William and George Bond, though William R. Dawes and Johann Galle also saw it independently. Termed it the "Crepe Ring" because it seemed to be composed of darker material than the brightest A and B Rings. Between 5 and 12 percent of light shining perpendicularly through the ring is blocked, so that when seen from above, the ring is close to transparent. The Maxwell Gap lies within the outer part of the C Ring. It also contains a dense non-circular ringlet, the Maxwell Ringlet.
Ringlet: Narrow region in Saturn's planetary ring system where the density of ring particles is high.
The A ring is the outer of Saturn's two brightest rings. A tiny moon, Atlas, orbits outside the edge of the A ring, which may be why the outer edge of the ring is so sharp. Near the outer edge of the A ring is a gap, the Encke gap, which can be spotted from Earth by sharp-eyed astronomers. The tiny moon Pan orbits within this division and is probably what keeps it clear. A narrower gap, the Keeler gap, lies at the very edge of the A ring. Cassini discovered a moon, Daphnis, orbiting within the Keeler gap.
Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud
Oort Cloud is 93 million miles away from the sun. The end of this region is considered to be the end of our solar system. The oort clod contains almost 2 trillion icy bodies. Comet's are formed here by giant molecular clouds, stars passing nearby, or tidal interactions that disturb the orbit of the body, causing it to go into a orbit as a comet. On objects named Sedna has a 10,500 year orbit period.It never enters the kuiper belt, and it is expected to be the first object in the oort cloud to be observed.
Kuiper Belt:
Objects most commonly observed by the SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE!!! This is one of the only ways that scientists can measure the larger objects in the kuiper belt, since they are so hard to measure by telescope, and hard to measure. One of the objects is the very unusual dwarf planet, HAUMEA. rotates at an unbelievable speed at 4 hours per rotation. This was caused by a object half it's size colliding into it. It caused the object to go flying off into space. As of now, no objects have traveled into the oort cloud, but the new horizons mission is expected to arrive at pluto and examine the kuiper belt in 2015.
Asteroid Belt and Formation: Asteroid Belt, Oort Cloud, Kuiper Belt: Asteroid Belt: Between Mars and Jupiter
Asteroids obviously are found here. The dwarf planet Ceres is expected to take up 1/3 of the entire mass of the asteroid belt.
The picture shown below shows most important information on well-known asteroids. Palas and Juno, are the 2nd and 3rd discovered asteroids, and Juno is also the 2nd biggest asteroid with a little more than a third of the mass of Ceres (Ceres is the biggest by far)
Formation of asteroid belt:
The asteroid belt might not be a planet, instead of many little asteroids for many reasons. One is that the rocks may never have accumulated into a planet. "There is far too little mass in the belt to constitute a planet, and the marked chemical differences between individual asteroids strongly suggest that the asteroids could not all have originated in a single planet. Instead, astronomers believe that the strong gravitational field of Jupiter continuously disturbs the motions of these chunks of primitive matter, nudging and pulling at them, thereby prohibiting them from aggregating into a planet. The existence and composition of the asteroid belt joins the general properties of the planets and their moons on our list of features that any theory of solar system formation must explain." QUOTE from the writers of the astronomy today textbook. The gravitational field of Jupiter is so strong, that it consistently bothers the motion of the asteroids, causing them not to form a planet.
Another theory is that it may have once been a planet, and it may have broke up long ago. But the size and mass still would be very small compared to our planets. Solar Flares: Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of the Sun. In only a few minutes it heats up to millions of degrees. It releases the same amount of energy as a billion megatons of TNT (dynamite). Most of the time they are found by sunspots. They are also found by the neutral line, the line basically between the areas of the opposite magnetic fields. Solar flares release energy in many different forms. These include electromagnetic rays such as gamma rays, and X-rays. Also by protons, electrons and mass flow. Flares are characterized by their brightness in X-rays (X-Ray flux). The biggest flares are X-Class flares. M-Class flares have about the tenth the energy of an x-class flare, and C-Class flares have a tenth of the X-ray flux (brightness) seen in M-Class flares, so a hundredth of the X-Class flares. Flare Observation:
Flares and the magnetic field around them.: 1. List the 8 planets in order of average surface temperature, from hottest to coldest: (2 pts each.)
A. E.
B. F.
C. G.
D. H.
2. List the 7 solar objects found in Aristotle’s universe not including stationary stars, from the Earth moving outward. (1 pt each)
Earth à_ à_ à_ à_ à
à_ à_
3.
A.
What is the key difference between a dwarf planet and a regular planet? (5pts)
B.
4.
C.
Who discovered Pluto? (5pts)
5.
D.
Label the following picture of the sun: (1 pts each)
E.
G.
F.
A_
B
C_ D
E_ F_
G_
6. Name Keepler’s 3 laws of planetary motion, in order. Exact wording is not required, but you must get the point across. (2 pts each)
A_
B_
C_
7. Define tidal locking. (5pts)
8. Which planets have rings? (5pts for ALL)
9. What does G, the gravitational constant, equal? Please use scientific notation.
10. What are the 3 dwarf planets? (1 pt each)
11. Who discovered the Oort cloud? (3 pts for full name)
12. The Oort cloud is the source for many _ in our solar system (3 pts)
13. The Oort cloud extends up to __ light years from the sun. (3 pts)
14. Which planet was discovered on Mach 13, 1781? (5 pts)
Tie Breaker 1A: Given that the mass of Neptune is 1.0244 × 1026 kg and it has a radius of 24,764 km, what would the escape velocity of Neptune be? Tie Breaker 1B: Please show your work while solving.
Escape Velocity Formula:
U_g = frac{-Gm_1m_2}{r},
Tie Breaker 2: Name as many natural satellites as you can. Include the full name and the planet it orbits around.
Formula for escape velocity. V sub e represents escape velocity. G= gravitational constant. M is the mass of the body. r is the distance between the center of the body and the point at which escape velocity is being calculated. g is the gravitational attraction at that distance, and μ is the standard gravitational parameter.
11/3/09
Today you should go through the powerpoint from the director of the event. The powerpoint gives a lot of information about the material that will be tested. If Alex has something else for you to do, do whatever he says : )
Aaron's Addition:
Solar system NotesVenus High point: Maxwell Montes (The Test was wrong!!!!)
Saturn’s Rings: Saturn's rings are a Keplerian disk, meaning that they differentially rotate around Saturn with a period equal to the period of rotation of a satellite in a circular orbit.
The D Ring is the innermost ring, and is very faint.
The C Ring is a wide but faint ring located inward of the B Ring. It was discovered in 1850 by William and George Bond, though William R. Dawes and Johann Galle also saw it independently. Termed it the "Crepe Ring" because it seemed to be composed of darker material than the brightest A and B Rings. Between 5 and 12 percent of light shining perpendicularly through the ring is blocked, so that when seen from above, the ring is close to transparent. The Maxwell Gap lies within the outer part of the C Ring. It also contains a dense non-circular ringlet, the Maxwell Ringlet.
Ringlet: Narrow region in Saturn's planetary ring system where the density of ring particles is high.
The A ring is the outer of Saturn's two brightest rings. A tiny moon, Atlas, orbits outside the edge of the A ring, which may be why the outer edge of the ring is so sharp. Near the outer edge of the A ring is a gap, the Encke gap, which can be spotted from Earth by sharp-eyed astronomers. The tiny moon Pan orbits within this division and is probably what keeps it clear. A narrower gap, the Keeler gap, lies at the very edge of the A ring. Cassini discovered a moon, Daphnis, orbiting within the Keeler gap.
Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud
Oort Cloud is 93 million miles away from the sun. The end of this region is considered to be the end of our solar system. The oort clod contains almost 2 trillion icy bodies. Comet's are formed here by giant molecular clouds, stars passing nearby, or tidal interactions that disturb the orbit of the body, causing it to go into a orbit as a comet. On objects named Sedna has a 10,500 year orbit period.It never enters the kuiper belt, and it is expected to be the first object in the oort cloud to be observed.
Kuiper Belt:
Objects most commonly observed by the SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE!!! This is one of the only ways that scientists can measure the larger objects in the kuiper belt, since they are so hard to measure by telescope, and hard to measure. One of the objects is the very unusual dwarf planet, HAUMEA. rotates at an unbelievable speed at 4 hours per rotation. This was caused by a object half it's size colliding into it. It caused the object to go flying off into space. As of now, no objects have traveled into the oort cloud, but the new horizons mission is expected to arrive at pluto and examine the kuiper belt in 2015.
Asteroid Belt and Formation:
Asteroid Belt, Oort Cloud, Kuiper Belt:
Asteroid Belt: Between Mars and Jupiter
Asteroids obviously are found here. The dwarf planet Ceres is expected to take up 1/3 of the entire mass of the asteroid belt.
The picture shown below shows most important information on well-known asteroids. Palas and Juno, are the 2nd and 3rd discovered asteroids, and Juno is also the 2nd biggest asteroid with a little more than a third of the mass of Ceres (Ceres is the biggest by far)
Formation of asteroid belt:
The asteroid belt might not be a planet, instead of many little asteroids for many reasons. One is that the rocks may never have accumulated into a planet. "There is far too little mass in the belt to constitute a planet, and the marked chemical differences between individual asteroids strongly suggest that the asteroids could not all have originated in a single planet. Instead, astronomers believe that the strong gravitational field of Jupiter continuously disturbs the motions of these chunks of primitive matter, nudging and pulling at them, thereby prohibiting them from aggregating into a planet. The existence and composition of the asteroid belt joins the general properties of the planets and their moons on our list of features that any theory of solar system formation must explain." QUOTE from the writers of the astronomy today textbook. The gravitational field of Jupiter is so strong, that it consistently bothers the motion of the asteroids, causing them not to form a planet.
Another theory is that it may have once been a planet, and it may have broke up long ago. But the size and mass still would be very small compared to our planets.
Solar Flares: Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of the Sun. In only a few minutes it heats up to millions of degrees. It releases the same amount of energy as a billion megatons of TNT (dynamite). Most of the time they are found by sunspots. They are also found by the neutral line, the line basically between the areas of the opposite magnetic fields. Solar flares release energy in many different forms. These include electromagnetic rays such as gamma rays, and X-rays. Also by protons, electrons and mass flow. Flares are characterized by their brightness in X-rays (X-Ray flux). The biggest flares are X-Class flares. M-Class flares have about the tenth the energy of an x-class flare, and C-Class flares have a tenth of the X-ray flux (brightness) seen in M-Class flares, so a hundredth of the X-Class flares.
Flare Observation:
Flares and the magnetic field around them.:
1. List the 8 planets in order of average surface temperature, from hottest to coldest: (2 pts each.)
A. E.
B. F.
C. G.
D. H.
2. List the 7 solar objects found in Aristotle’s universe not including stationary stars, from the Earth moving outward. (1 pt each)
Earth à_ à_ à_ à_ à
à_ à_
3.
What is the key difference between a dwarf planet and a regular planet? (5pts)
4.
5.
A_
B
C_ D
E_ F_
G_
6. Name Keepler’s 3 laws of planetary motion, in order. Exact wording is not required, but you must get the point across. (2 pts each)
A_
B_
C_
7. Define tidal locking. (5pts)
8. Which planets have rings? (5pts for ALL)
9. What does G, the gravitational constant, equal? Please use scientific notation.
10. What are the 3 dwarf planets? (1 pt each)
11. Who discovered the Oort cloud? (3 pts for full name)
12. The Oort cloud is the source for many _ in our solar system (3 pts)
13. The Oort cloud extends up to __ light years from the sun. (3 pts)
14. Which planet was discovered on Mach 13, 1781? (5 pts)
15. Briefly describe the planetesimal theory. (5 pts accuracy, 5 pts details)
Tie Breaker 1A: Given that the mass of Neptune is 1.0244 × 1026 kg and it has a radius of 24,764 km, what would the escape velocity of Neptune be? Tie Breaker 1B: Please show your work while solving.
Escape Velocity Formula:
Tie Breaker 2: Name as many natural satellites as you can. Include the full name and the planet it orbits around.
Escape velocity list
Formula for escape velocity. V sub e represents escape velocity. G= gravitational constant. M is the mass of the body. r is the distance between the center of the body and the point at which escape velocity is being calculated. g is the gravitational attraction at that distance, and μ is the standard gravitational parameter.